Sakurabana nodokekarikeri naki hito o kouru namida zo mazu wa ochikeru - Shui Wakashu(English Translation & Meaning)

桜花のどけかりけり亡き人を
恋ふる涙ぞまづは落ちける

Roma-ji: Sakurabana nodokekarikeri naki hito o kouru namida zo mazu wa ochikeru
English Translation: Cherry blossoms rest
so calmly on the bough;
for the one now gone,
it is the tears of longing
that are the first to fall.
Meaning: The cherry blossoms bloom so calmly and are slow to fall. It is my tears of longing for the one who is gone that fall first.
Commentary: Book Twenty Lament Poems 1274

Headnote: "Composed on the topic of seeing the blossoms at home at the height of the cherry season, in the spring of the year after losing his daughter, and putting a little of his feeling into words"
The poet says that while the cherry blossoms bloom calmly and do not fall, it is his tears of longing for the dead that fall first. The headnote shows it was composed in the spring of the year after his daughter's death, on the topic of seeing the blossoms at home at their height and putting his feeling into words. In the season when one should grieve for falling blossoms, he sings of tears that spill before the flowers, conveying the depth of a parent's grief at losing a child.
Poems 1274 through 1277 form a sequence on the topic of the cherry blossoms in the spring after a daughter's death, Saneyori's own poem on losing his daughter being followed by poems by other poets on the same topic. The book of laments opens with cherry blossoms that call the dead to mind. The book's opening thus answers its closing poem, 1351, which ends with a vow never to forget a lord's name, so that it begins and ends with hearts that hold the dead in memory.
The author, written as "Ononomiya Chancellor," is Fujiwara no Saneyori. The eldest son of the Regent Fujiwara no Tadahira, he rose to Regent and Chancellor and founded the Ononomiya line.

First line, "sakurabana," means "cherry blossoms," the blossoms in the garden of the headnote. It shares this word with the third line of the next poem, 1275, and the first line of 1277.
Second line, "nodokekarikeri," means "how calmly they bloom," with "keri" a sigh of realization, speaking of blossoms in no hurry to fall. The poem breaks after this second line.
Third line, "naki hito o," means "for the one who is gone," the daughter of the headnote.
Fourth line, "kouru namida zo," means "the tears of longing," with the binding particle "zo" resolved by the attributive "keru" in the final line.
Final line, "mazu wa ochikeru," means "are the first to fall," setting blossoms that do not fall against tears that fall first.
Author: Fujiwara no Saneyori
Source: Shui Wakashu
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